


It Started with the Mud Puddles

by sofreakinmanyfandoms



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Love, Mud Puddles, Romance, Telekinesis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofreakinmanyfandoms/pseuds/sofreakinmanyfandoms
Summary: From the moment he first saw you, Bucky slowly starts to fall in love.





	It Started with the Mud Puddles

**Author's Note:**

> Written for barnesrogersvstheworld on tumblr, specifically for her Marvel Kiss Challenge.

You had had mixed feelings when you were asked to join the Avengers. On the one hand, you wanted to help people, and the Avengers would give you a way to do that on a larger scale. On the other hand, you would have to move to their compound in upstate New York. Your tiny apartment in New York City was home; there was no way some compound could ever change that.  
Consider your mind officially changed.  
You couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face as you zipped up your coat. The yellow rain gear and red boots reminded you of your favorite children’s book. It had rained all last night and you couldn’t wait to get out in the yard.  
The fresh after-rain scent of the grass and surrounding trees hit your senses and set your heart racing. Rain in New York City left a hint of a fresh scent in the air, but it didn’t have what the compound was surrounded by right now: mud puddles.  
With a squeal and a running start, you launched yourself into the first puddle you saw. The splash flew up around you and you felt like a little kid again. Puddle stomping had been a tradition for you and your siblings after every rainstorm when you were growing up. It had been so long since you had lived where puddles like this formed and you were going to spend the day enjoying them.  
\----------  
Bucky followed Natasha off the jet and onto the rooftop landing pad. Exhaustion was seeping from every pore and visions of his bed were dancing through his mind. It had been a long mission and he was ready to crash.  
Before he could get inside, a laugh from the yard caught his attention. He looked over the edge and saw you splashing in the puddles.  
Who is that?  
Steve came out to welcome Bucky back and found him watching you. The Captain’s face lit up with a soft smile when he saw you splashing around.  
“I see you’ve spotted Y/N.”  
“Who is she?” Bucky couldn’t take his eyes off you.  
“The newest member of the team.” Steve clapped Bucky on the shoulder. “Come on in and get cleaned up, maybe get a few hours of sleep. Dinner is at seven. I’ll introduce you then.”  
\----------  
At six thirty you finally forced yourself to go back inside. Several splashes had worked their way up your pants and into your boots, soaking you with cold, muddy water. You couldn’t care less.  
You used your half-hour before dinner to dry off and change. It was exactly seven when you padded out of the elevator in your leggings and fluffy socks, Tony’s MIT hoodie enveloping you in its warmth. He’d probably want it back once he found out you were the one who stole it. Too bad for him; it was your new favorite item of clothing.  
Most of the team and two people you hadn’t met were shuffling around the kitchen and dining room, determining the contents of various Chinese takeout containers and distributing them to the correct recipients. Since arriving, you had learned that Tuesdays were for takeout and video games. It was your favorite night of the week.  
“Y/N, I’ve got some people for you to meet,” Steve called when he spotted you. He motioned to the two you didn’t recognize. “This is Natasha, and this is Bucky. They just got back from a pretty long mission, which is why they haven’t met you yet. Guys, this is Y/N, our new resident telekinetic.”  
You smiled at Nat, a bit nervous at meeting the famous Black Widow. “Nice to meet you both.” You turned to Bucky. “I hope the mission went okay?”  
Nat waved her hand. “It turned out in the end. I think we’re both just glad to be back.”  
“You’re a telekinetic?” You weren’t sure what the look on Bucky’s face as he asked meant, but your reply came out before you could stop yourself.  
“No, I actually just shapeshift into a huge bat. Travel by echolocation, eat fruit flies, sleep upside-down – stuff like that. Not sure why they thought I should be an Avenger.”  
Clint cracked up and Bruce smiled, handing you a container. You accepted it and peeked inside. God bless Bruce; beef lo mein was your favorite. You quickly snagged a pair of chopsticks and settled into your usual dinner perch: on top of the fridge.  
Nat quirked an eyebrow at your strange position. “I see there’s some stuff I’ll have to get used to.”  
Bucky was openly gaping. “How did you get up there?”  
You grinned at him. “Didn’t you see me transform into a bat? I flew.”  
“She can make herself fly with telekinesis,” Clint informed him with a smirk. “Hey!”  
He grabbed for the shrimp floating out of his container but it dodged his hand and deposited itself in your mouth. You bit off the tail and flicked it at him with a giggle.  
His pouting made you feel a little bad. “I’ll let you have a bite of my lo mein,” you offered. Clint reached out his chopsticks and you held your container down where he could reach inside. Once he’d snagged a bite, he headed towards the common room where Sam had started setting up Mario Kart.  
“I want a rematch against Bruce,” Wanda announced as she joined the group. “Sam and Clint can have their weekly pissing match after I get my revenge.”  
“Tony finally bought more controllers to replace the ones broken last month,” Steve laughed. “We’re doing four at a time again.”  
Wanda shrugged. “Then they can do their weekly pissing match while I get my revenge. I’m not picky.”  
This was your favorite part of living with the others and precisely why you always settled up high where you could watch everything that happened. The team was one big family, teasing each other and having a great time. Sometimes you missed the peacefulness of your own apartment, but by now you wouldn’t trade these evenings for the world.  
You brought your lo mein with you as you transitioned to the hammock swing Tony had hung for you in the common room. On the couch, Bruce and Wanda had settled in for their rematch; Natasha and Steve had snagged the other controllers. Wanda selected a track and with that, the night of gaming had begun.  
You were so focused on the games happening you didn’t notice that Bucky studied you all evening.  
\----------  
Bucky rounded the corner to the kitchen and found you perched on a bar stool, a canvas board and paint spread out across the counter. You didn’t notice his arrival until he cleared his throat.  
“Oh, hi Bucky!” Your face lit up with what he assumed was your usual smile when you saw him. “How was your morning?”  
“Too short,” Bucky replied, his voice betraying the fact that he had just woken up despite it now being early afternoon.  
You gave him a solemn nod. “I haven’t been on any long missions yet, but the short ones are exhausting and I imagine your body needed all the sleep it could get. The coffee in the pot is fresh even though it’s not full. Tony just finished brewing more and he took more than half the pot with him.”  
Bucky poured himself a mug of the offered beverage and surprised you by settling onto the stool next to you.  
“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at the colors across the canvas.  
“Finger painting.”  
His eyes shot to yours, unsure if you were serious or not. You waggled your paint-stained fingers at him.  
“Nothing should get between the artist and their art. I just take that a step further than most.”  
Bucky looked back down at the picture you had been working on and creased his brow.  
“You did all of this with your hands?”  
You nodded and tucked your hair behind you ear, leaving a smudge of green behind.  
“It makes me feel more in touch with what I’m painting. It’s kinda like sculpting in two dimentions.”  
“Except you need more work on your sculpting,” Steve teased as he entered the kitchen. He reached into the mug cupboard and pulled out a misshapen monstrosity decorated with a shield design.  
“Hey, you still use it,” you grinned at him as he filled the mug with the remains of the coffee and set to work brewing more.  
“That I do,” he laughed. “Clint keeps asking when he’ll get his.”  
“Tell him I’ll make him one whenever I make it back to the studio.”  
You and Steve fell into an easy conversation. Steve noticed Bucky alternately studying you and your painting. He tucked it away in his memory as something to think about later.  
\----------  
“Hey, Bucky, have you seen Nat?”  
Bucky looked up from the book he was reading and froze. You were standing with your hands on your hips decked out in the most ridiculous outfit he had ever seen. Your t-shirt was neon green and your leggings were purple with pink and blue triangles of varying sized across them. There was a bright yellow terrycloth headband around your forehead and bright orange bands on your wrist, and you had pulled your hair up into the biggest side ponytail he had ever seen.  
“Well?” you prodded when he didn’t reply.  
“No, I haven’t seen her,” he managed to get out. “Um, what are you wearing?”  
You glanced down at your outfit and waved your hand dismissively.  
“Oh, Clint found an 80s workout video while we were thrifting earlier and we decided to try it out. This is just my way of getting into the spirit of it. He thought Nat might want to at least watch.”  
“Watch what?” Nat asked, blowing a bubble as she walked in. The bubble popped as she took in your outfit. “Never mind what. The answer is yes.”  
“Did you find her?” Clint poked his head into the room, a neon pink headband the same style as yours wrapped around his head.  
“Yup, we’re coming!” you replied, grabbing Nat’s hand and dragging her behind you. “See you later, Bucky!”  
Steve came across his friend half an hour later. Bucky was staring at nothing, his mind still lingering on a certain colorful telekinetic.  
\----------  
“You know, stuff like this never happened off-mission before you joined the team.”  
You shrugged at Sam. The movement caused you to wince. “I’d like the record to show that I don’t have a fully-developed frontal lobe yet, but Clint does, and he thought it was a great idea.”  
“Which in retrospect probably should have been the first indication it was actually a terrible one,” Tony admitted.  
Bruce had Clint laid out in traction until a chiropractor could come to fix his back. You had dislocated your shoulder and were now icing it to keep down the swelling and pain from it being forced back in place. Tony was only in the med bay because that was where the two of you were; he was being forced to listen to Sam and Steve’s “how could you be so reckless” lecture because you and Clint probably couldn’t have pulled off your stunt without him.  
“It was so fun, though,” Clint retorted from his bed. “How many people can say they’ve been hit with a six-foot water balloon?”  
“One too many,” Steve replied before turning his glare to Tony. “And you! You built them a slingshot?”  
Tony held up his hands. “In my defense, I only knew they wanted to launch a giant water balloon. I didn’t know they were going to aim it at Clint.”  
“That bit was Clint’s idea,” you cut in. “I just wanted to launch it. He wanted to know what it would feel like to get hit with it.”  
“It was great,” Clint added sleepily. His pain meds seemed to be kicking in.  
Bucky watched the whole scene from the doorway and tried to fit this piece into the picture of you his mind was forming.  
\----------  
“Power of positive thinking, Barnes. Power of positive thinking.”  
Bucky clenched his jaw and glared at you. “You’ve been shot. That’s not positive,” he growled, taking out two more HYDRA agents.  
“But it won’t be fatal and I don’t need my arm to do damage,” you retorted in a sing song voice as you telekinetically ripped a man’s gun from his hands and shot him with it. “We’ve still got to get out of here. Might as well have fun doing it.” You launched into an off-pitch rendition of “Hakuna Matata” and lobbed a grenade to your left.  
Bucky swore under his breath and followed you toward the exit. Going on missions with you would be the death of him.  
\----------  
“Y/N, have you seen –” Bucky entered your room and cut off as you shushed him, motioning with your eyes to the sleeping child in your lap.  
The team had rescued a group of orphans on the last mission, and Tony had made room for all of them at the compound until they could be placed in good foster homes. One of them, a small girl no older than four, had stumbled upon you sitting on the floor and curled up in your lap, promptly falling asleep with her head against your chest.  
“What are you looking for?” you whispered as Bucky sat next to you.  
“Her,” he whispered back. “Bruce did a head count and was wondering who was missing.”  
You studied the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed deeply. “Bruce is remarkably good at mothering.”  
“Seems like you’re not so bad at it yourself.”  
You smiled shyly at Bucky and the two of you sat together in silence until Bruce found you and whisked the girl back to her bed. Bucky felt a tug of disappointment in his chest when the two of you had to go your separate ways. The more time he spent with you, the more being with you felt right.  
\----------  
“Dude, decorating the tree is so much easier with Y/N around,” Clint called to Bucky as the latter entered the common room. Everyone was there bustling around and decorating, but you were the only one his eyes were scanning for.  
You were sitting crisscross on the floor by the couch, eating sugar cookies and holding Clint up in the air near the top of the tree. He was reaching out to put the star on top when you pretended to drop him.  
“Not cool, Y/N. So not cool.” He glared once you had stabilized him.  
“That’s okay, I prefer being hot anyway,” you smirked back.  
Bucky sat down next to you and took the cookie you offered.  
“These are pretty good. Who made them?”  
You shrugged. “Whoever Tony bought them from. I was going to protest buying Christmas cookies, but these are better than anything I could make, so I decided to roll with it.”  
“Hey guys,” Natasha sang from the couch behind you. “Look what I found!”  
The two of you looked up to see Nat holding a sprig of mistletoe above your heads.  
“Gah!” You had actually dropped Clint that time. At least you had already begun lowering him so he didn’t have as far to fall.  
“Sorry!” Your hand came up over your mouth as Clint stumbled to his feet. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I got distracted.”  
“He’ll forgive you if you two kiss,” Sam said with a grin.  
“Sure, what he said,” Clint confirmed, rubbing the back of his head. “Go on, kiss him.”  
Chants of “Kiss him! Kiss him!” rang out around the room. You and Bucky looked at each other, and almost before you could realize it he had pulled you into his arms and was kissing you. The two of you lost yourselves in the feeling of each other’s lips on your own, deepening the kiss until finally you had to pull back, gasping for air.  
“It’s about time that happened,” you breathed, your faces only a few inches apart.  
“Been wanting to do that for a while,” Bucky admitted. “I’ve never met anyone like you before, Y/N. You’re perfect. You live through what we all go through every mission but still manage to keep a sense of wonder. It’s… it’s really nice. It started with the mud puddles; when I first saw you, you were out in the yard splashing around and having so much fun just… being. The more I get to know you, the more I don’t want to ever have to live without you again. You keep me from losing myself, and I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”  
“Look what you did,” Clint complained to Natasha. “Now they’re gonna go all lovey on us.”  
“Shut up, Barton,” you laughed before pulling Bucky in for another kiss, whispering something only he could hear.  
“I think I love you, too.”


End file.
